Missiles fall near Hamas PM’s house as Israel intensifies attacks on Gaza

Palestinians extinguish a fire after Israeli air strikes targeted an electricity generator that fed the house of Hamas's Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza City November 15, 2012. (Reuters/Majdi Fathi)

Residents say the strike destroyed an electricity generator near Haniyeh’s house. It was unclear whether he was at home at the time of the assault. No casualties have been reported from that incident.

Meanwhile an Israeli Defense Force spokesperson has said in an official Twitter: “During the past hour, the IDF targeted approx. 70 underground medium range rocket launching sites in Gaza. Direct hits were confirmed.”

This comes as Israel is apparently intensifying its assault on Gaza after it launched the operation “Pillar of Defense” a day ago. Three people have been killed in Israel, while the Palestinian death toll has reached at least 16, including children, say medical sources in Gaza.

An Israeli strike killed a UN school teacher in Gaza. Marwan Abu El Qumsan, an Arabic teacher at a UN school, was killed as his car was hit by a bomb on Thursday, the UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, says on its website.

IDF claims that since the start of the operation the Israeli Air Force has targeted 300 “terror activity sites” in the Gaza Strip. It adds that the Iron Dome Missile Defense System has intercepted more than 130 rockets launched from Gaza.

For the first time since 1991 residents of Tel Aviv took cover on Thursday after air raid sirens alerted them to a missile threat as a rocket launched from Gaza hit the city.

­Harry Fear, a documentary film maker and activist, who is in Gaza, has told RT that the shelling has not let up and the situation on the ground remains very dangerous for residents.

“The situation in Gaza right now is very severe. Even the safest areas of Gaza are not particularly safe tonight,” he said. “We went to a hospital and saw the injured children as a result of what’s happened in the last few days.”

“Israeli tanks are massing on the border with Gaza. There has been photographic evidence of that. We can only assume it is the precursor to a ground invasion as Israel has promised to launch against the strip.”

Foreign Policy analyst Dr Adil Shamoo believes the use of force by the Israelis in Gaza has been disproportionate.

“Israeli action to continuously have 200-300 rockets over Gaza, killing and wounding women and children is really not proportional action under any moral standards,” Shamoo told RT.

Further, he argues that such an invasion is a dangerous risk and is not in the interest of Israeli citizens because it may lead to a “wider war with the Arab world in which the Arabic populace will be demanding action from their own governments in response to Israeli attack on Gaza.”